Connecting Communities makes the news!

The CBC in Thunder Bay recently profiled an innovative Connecting Communities project – bringing aboriginal elders together through a quilting circle to share stories and learn about social assistance and human rights law.

In late January 2015, elders gathered at the Thunder Bay Indian Friendship Centre to unveil a quilt they’d worked on for eight months. Each panel of the quilt represents a self-portrait of one of the elders. While working on the quilt, the elders shared their stories with one another and were trained on legal issues affecting their communities.

Elders play a significant leadership role in their community – aboriginal community members often turn to them for help and information. This training project, led by the local friendship centre in conjunction with Kinna-aweya Community Legal Services, aimed to help elders gain information about the law by connecting legal issues with their own – and others’ – personal experiences. The quilting helped to bond the participants and open them to sharing their own stories with others – and the resulting quilt is a beautiful and moving testament to their stories and their hope for positive change in their communities.

If you’d like to see a photo of the quilt and read and listen to the CBC’s coverage of this project, click here.

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